[blown 68]

it was 1980, i had three years to go to get my license, my uncle had a 1968 gto, solar red ramair 1 with a chrome nose, he sold it to a cousin at the beach, he totalled it. bye bye dream car. i still kick myself for not being old enough to have taken charge on that one.
come today, my dad is selling his un-restored 1963 catalina post 389 tripower 4 speed to me, (still in great shape), after selling it in 1977, and buying it back a few years ago, i am not letting this one get away. period.

[68Prix]

My one I let get away was a 69 GTO. It was not much of a car, the body work was rough and not much was stock about any of it. My budy had some 16 heads reworked and put on the car and new ignition system. Put a 4 speed in after taking out the stock 3 speed. Put a 12 bolt in after blowing up the stock 10 bolt. Bought the car for 1500 and stuck about 2000 into the thing. Got mad at it after trying to adjust the rockers that were fine before he started messing around. Offered the car to me for a $1000. My parents would have killed me so I passed. Sold it to a guy he worked with awhile latter. Man I should have taken the 1000 to him and got my parent mad. At least I would have a GTO that was a runner and some what solid. What I wouldn't do to go back to 1996 and do it again.

[goatmanmitch]

66 GTO tri-power 4 speed. Around 98, one of the retirees from my work was thinking about selling it, it was gold, numbers matching (rebuilt tri-power was an add on), tach, console, really tall gears 4.88's? 4.56? Texas car, beautiful gold paint, but the turn off was the chrome had some pitting and the interior, which was recently replaced and as new, was gold. I just couldn't handle the gold. $7500, just what he had into it. I himhawed, and he even found my hotel number as I was out of town for work and called me to see if I was going to take it because he had someone else with cash in hand. Hats off to him for the respectable gesture of "I was here first", but boot in the but for me for passing on that one.
Test driving that car was the only time I have ever been scared behind the wheel of a car.

[GTO JOHN]

Back in 1991 I had sold my 66 GTO Tripower 4spd because my then fiance wanted it gone. Well 3 months later I had had enough and she was gone too. Now with no girl and a pocketful of cash I was looking for another muscle car. Didn't matter what it was but had to be a big cubes and a 4spd.

No GTO's were to be found at that time so I was looking at Mopars. At Hooked On Classics in Chanhassen, MN (they have since moved to Watertown, MN) I stumbled onto a really clean 1971 Cuda from Colorado. Red with black interior, 383 billboards, rear wing, window louver, fog lamps, front spoiler, rally wheels, all original drivetrain, sheetmetal, and paint. $3,200.

Naturally I take a pass since it is an automatic. Now the car is worth 20x that.

I ended up with a 68 Roadrunner 383 4spd bench seat 4.10 posi. That car was crazy fast. Sold that 3 years later when I found a suitable GTO replacement and it's been GTO's the rest of the way.

[6tee7goat]

About 9 years ago, during winter, I was rummaging through a local saver and saw an ad for a '66 GP in good condition. I had our house up for sale and we were in discussions on building a new one. Well since the car was so close I went to look at it. Turns out it had a mint CA Turqoise body with matching loaded interior in excellent shape, 8-lugs, re-verb, duals, excellent chrome, very nice. I knew it was well worth the $5K asking price and I also had the cash. But unfortunately I had my GTO and I listened to everyone telling me that it wasn't a good time to get another vehicle with all that was going on with the houses. Just should have went with my gut.

[Barrier Blue]

6tee7goat
Your story reminds me that about 6 or 7 years ago there was a beautiful 66 GP for sale locally for $5,000. It still had it's original 421 with tripower.

The one that causes me the most pain as far as cars that I couldn't afford to buy, wasn't even a Pontiac, believe it or not.
Back in about 1987 in our local paper someone had a "67 corvette convertible, 4spd., 427/435hp. I believe the ad said it had only about 25,000 miles. The ad was only in the paper for 1 day. Price was $7,500.
Right now there is one on ebay with 1 bid at $139,000, reserve not met.

[60man]

Didn't see this post. I posted this in another thread but will work here.
Bought this 57 Safari & a 60 Bonni 425A stick car for something like $4K around 1986. Lost Safari through divorce sale and Bonni sat and became a parts car !
Thr Safari had been mechanicly restored and was in great shape. Just needed interior detailing and painting. NO rust ! I miss that car even today. I understand they only produced a little over 1,100 Safari's in '57 !!
Just sold the Bonni for $2k severalal months ago. Ran out of room & fortitude.

[Lee Hewell]

One Summer day in 1985, I heard a knock on the front door and opened it to find a young guy standing there. He said that he had heard that I liked Pontiacs and had a car that I might be interested in. I followed him to his place and found a well worn '72 GTO sitting in the driveway. It had a bad Earl Scheib paint job (lots of overspray) and had some front end damage. I opened the hood and was startled to find a HO 455 in it. As I looked further, I found it had an M-22 and a 12 bolt posi too. The interior was dirty but in good condition. This was a very restorable car. Well, I tried not to show too much excitement and asked how much he wanted. He had his heart set on $800, but I got it for $700. At the time, I had no place to put it so it sat along the street in front of my house. I had a neightbor who was the town derelict and sat home all day bothering the neighbors. He decided to call the State Police to report I had an unlicensed car sitting along the road. The cop was an A$$ and told me that if I didn't remove it immediately, that I would be ticketed every day until I did. I reluctantly removed the 455 and sold the car to a local kid for $400. I am still crying about that car after 20 yrs.

[al6389]

Originally Posted by BOB VIDAN

Al, that car is alive in a friend's shop down here in Vancouver. He is in the process of gathering NOS parts to do it right. He has been offered $80K as is sits, like you saw it.

that response will give heartburn, you meanie.

[al6389]

oooh, that replly gives heartburn.

[Department X]

http://www.katoman.com/green%20horne...ck_beauty1.htm Check out this link to a guy that got hold of The Green Hornets's car The Black Beauty

[Kerry H]

Back when I was 16 (23 years ago) and just got my license, I looked a 68 GTO near my house. IT was solid, straight and ran good. The asking price was $1500. My dad told me about my cousins husband in Minnasota that had a GTO and was asking $800. I was supposed to get that one but I never knew why I did not. Wish I could go back and get them both now.....

[hungry69bird]

my and my g/f were driving home and she was reading me the classifieds..this was back in 85 i believe. she says..oh.heres a 67 gto for $400..im like..ohhh?....that cant be right...needless to say we flipped around. the woman had kicked her husband out....kept the car. he had just done all the body work...was in primered condition all the paint stuff still in the truck...it had the original 400 and turbo trans in it..interior was in excellent condition..i said..umm...lemme go find some money..first time in my life i could not come up with the money to save my life. she even called to say she was moving and she would lower the price if i could just come get it.
to this day that one still hurts.

[OHC6-Man]

I didn't let mine get away. 1968 Tempest with the ohc6, not sprint. I was originally looking at a '66 Tempest with a 350, but when my dad went to look at it she was gone. The dealer said they were getting a '68 Tempest on consignment, and so I went to look at her. Running engine (needs work though) and next to no rust at all besides the typical rust on the rockers/ quarters, and a tad on the floor. The owner had no use for her and wanted $2,900. He couldn't sell it so it went to the dealer. We called the original owner just to make sure its what he wanted. After talking with the dealer, they wanted $5900 for it! They even denied the owner ever wanted to sell it for $2900 (we even called the owner after talking with the dealer and the owner confirmed $2900). So after two weeks of fighting with the dealer and talking with the owner, we came to $3500. Then a little more for title etc.

If this car wasn't sitting in a field behind the dealer, it would have easily brought $6k (this was only in November last year). I knew I wouldn't let her get away, and if I did I knew she would sit in that field and rot away. I had to save her and I did.

Tis a shame I was always too young for a car. I missed a lot of good deals, like a real nice 30's roadster done hot rod style that went for $9,900....

[future]

Back in '83 or '84, I had 2 seperate chances to buy a '70 455 HO GTO convertible with 4 speed. Still had original white paint and black interior.
A friend owned the car and had to sell. I always lusted after the car and he wanted $1200. I couldn't swing it because of college. He sold it to another friend that started to fix it up a bit. He drove it for one summer then decided to sell. He offered it to me for $1500, again I couldn't afford it.
Always wondered where that car went. There was very little rust. I do remember the first guy had a small patch rivited in on the left rear quarter. He had also rebuilt the originial engine yet did not drive it.
If I had known, I would have sold my '64 Chevelle convert and bought that one up. A definite keeper.

[455_PWR]

When I bought my 75 trans am I didn't know much about ta's at all. The guy I bought it from also had a 74 super duty that a tree fell on with low miles and wanted to sell it for $500. I passed on it. Needless to say it's long gone.

[PMDRACER]

Had a chance about 15 years ago to buy a '71 LeMans wagon with just about every option on it, including the Endura nose for $500. It was in good shape except for faded paint and ran great.

Unfortunately at the time I was making about $7.50/hr, had my own place but nowhere to park it, etc.

[gtos]

Back in the early 80s I sold my 71 GTO 455 H.O 4 spd convertible ( 1 of 21 made) needing resto for $300.00 ( I needed $$$ to fix my 77 lemans that I wrecked). I found out how rare the car was after the fact. Luckily 20+ years later I found another one. This time it is a keeper.

[bb400ho]

once i bought a triple black 67 buick gs 400 4sp. for 400.00 i remember looking at it and thinking how ugly it was and how the tranny whined and i couldnt belive that i bought it. i gave it to a freind of mine at the time who had wrecked his 71 gs
bryan

[ProDale]

I had a pretty good one get away from me in 1985. I regret it to this day.

I was in high school driving a 74 Volvo that I hated but saving up money for some kind of hot car. In fact, I worked with my dad at a high performance parts warehouse after school every day. So I pull up to work one day and there parked right in front of the the door is a '68 GTO convertible. Well, I couldn't take my eyes off of it. It was a clean white with black top and interior as well as hideaways. I was in love.

So I go inside to my dad's office and I am dying to tell him about the awesome car I see out front. There sits a guy in his office who as I am starting to talk lets me know it is his car and IT IS FOR SALE! A mere $2000. I couldn't believe it. This car was a real deal.

After days of negotiation with my mother (parents were just divorced 6 months earlier) I am able to borrow the money. You can't believe the excitement I felt as my dad and I drove to the guys house. Turns out he had several cars for sale. I drive the GTO and my dad gets me to drive a 78 Firebired the guy also has with a "455". There isn't much comparison so I drive the GTO home with the top down for $1800 smiling the whole 60 miles.

This car is pretty nice and has alot of stuff: Power disc brakes, Air conditioning (still functioning), power windows, power door locks, Hurst dual gate shifter, but has a 400 two barrel. The next day the timing chain spins and the car is broken.

Dad moves 1000mi away and my friends and I change the timing chain in the parking lot of the apartment complex my mom is renting. It's a long and dirty job, especially for a guy with hardly any tools, no experience, and some jack stands. It works, but the car won't idle. Bent valves. Months go by while I work on it in my spare time. I buy a pair of not as good heads out of the newspaper and do a head swap in the parking lot again.

The AC gets ditched by me like an idiot (that's not performance!) and I have taken the stock rally II wheels and replaced them with Cragar SST. The original heads get thrown away (I didn't know they were any good.)

At this point I am thinking that this car has a station wagon engine in it as it is a 2bbl, but I know now it was an original option. I did think the entire drivetrain was swapped as it had an open rear, but that was correct for the auto. Since the internet didn't exist then I didn't have the info available.

Soo...after alot of work the oil pump locks up after the head swap. Has anyone tried to change an oil pump with the engine still in the car? I did it and it was the stupidest thing I have ever done. The next day the alternator died. Power windows don't go up with a dead battery and I got caught out in the rain....I was not happy!

At this point I had the car about 9 months and drove it 3 days total. It had stranded me no less than 4 times and I was fed up. I called the guy I bought it from and traded as is for the 78 firebird with the 455. I actually felt relief when we were done trading.

What a mistake. The GTO was awesome. It was a perfect, rust free body with excellent paint. All badging correct, perfect bumpers, enduro nose without chips, mint like new interior, and all the power options as I listed before. Convertible ultra rare 2bbl with all those options. Do you know how much a car like that would be today? I can't even find any with power windows and air that are convertibles.

More than 20 years have gone by since then and I still miss that car every day. I haven't had any real muscle cars back in my life until last year. I decided to treat myself and bought a 72 LeMans convertible to fix up and make it the way I want. (You can see pics of it and some more cars I bought recently here: Pics of the cars ) Even though it is a great car, it isn't the white GTO from my youth. I hope to eventually find another 68 or 69 so I can try again.

Ohh yeah and the Firebird? Well the tranny blew up on day 2. The engine blew up about 1 week after the trans was fixed. It was a 400, not a 455. The car never ran again and I went to college. I think it went to a junkyard. The next car I bought was a brand new 1988 Mustang LX 5.0. It ran for 260,000 miles and 10 years before I got rid of it.